Seat Pagine Rises in Milan on Debt Restructuring Agreement

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Seat Pagine Gialle SpA rose the most
in more than a month in Milan trading after Italy’s largest
phone book publisher reached an agreement in principle on the
restructuring of its debt.

The stock climbed 4.7 percent to 2.92 euro cents, giving
Turin, Italy-based Seat a market value of 56.9 million euros
($75 million). Bondholders proposed Nov. 4 to write down some of
their 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) of debt in exchange for a
90 percent stake in Seat Pagine.

“The agreement on the new debt structure is very positive
news,” Marco Greco, an analyst at Mediobanca SpA, said in a
note today. “However, the most important point --allocation of
equity in the company post-restructuring -- is still pending and
the time left is only one week. If there is no agreement, then
the company is due to become insolvent and would eventually put
under bankruptcy procedures.”

Last month, Seat Pagine said it would take advantage of a
30-day grace period to skip a 52 million-euro coupon payment due
Oct. 31 on its Lighthouse junior bond. Under the agreement
reached yesterday, the coupon will be paid by Nov. 30. The
company requested that all parties enter into a “lock-up”
agreement to hold their securities.

“This is an extremely challenging timetable,” Seat said
in a statement late yesterday. “The company urges all
stakeholders to use every effort to ensure” they meet the
deadline.